


A Flurry of Emotions

by CubanCracker62



Series: Stories from the Spiral [3]
Category: Wizard101
Genre: Gen, fala tries her best, her best explodes in her face, thankfully tarrak is pretty cool about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23224885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CubanCracker62/pseuds/CubanCracker62
Summary: Fala's first official day as an Arcanum scholar immediately starts off with a hitch.
Series: Stories from the Spiral [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1213407
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	A Flurry of Emotions

“Alright, kid. Now that you’re not running around busy, how about we get you started today, eh?” Tarrak Hadfield walked down one of the corridors of the Arcanum while Fala followed behind.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked.

“Just a little test of skill is all.” Tarrak stopped in front of a door and opened it, revealing a large empty room. He casually strolled over to the center. “I heard from Ione and Baba that you’re one tough cookie, so I just want to see firsthand what kinda power you’re packin’ here. We’ll figure out where to go from there. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” It made perfect sense to her when he put it like that. 

“Good. Now…” He turned to face her. “Hit me with your best spell.”

Fala blanched a little. “...What?”

“Throw your best spell at me,” he repeated. “And I mean _best_. None of that warmup stuff. I wanna see what you’re made of.”

Fala hesitated. Her best spell? She didn’t want to admit it, but her magic had been giving her trouble lately, and had been extremely finicky at best. At times, she had been able to force it to cooperate, but not always. Not only that, she knew her way around a fight, and they both knew that. The most powerful spellwork she could muster could seriously hurt someone. She fought _Morganthe_ , for crying out loud!

“Are you sure about that?” she asked.

“Of course I’m sure.” He thumped his staff on the ground once, and the air around him shimmered in swirling patterns before solidifying into a clear barrier. Years of practice allowed her to instantly recognize the tower shield spell. “Don’t worry about me. I’d be a pretty lousy ice scholar if I couldn’t take a good hit.”

She took another good look at his shield spell, still wary of the thought. It _did_ look pretty sturdy, even by her own perfectionist standards. She took a deep breath, calming her frayed nerves. 

“Well… okay,” she said, shifting into a comfortable stance. “You ready?”

“Whenever you are,” he replied.

At that, she clapped her hands together and began pouring mana into a spell. As she had come to expect by now, the spell immediately began to twist and warp in her grasp; beads of sweat formed on her face as she wrestled to keep it under control. She could feel the ice and snow straining against her will, fighting to rage freely without her bossing it around and telling it what not to do.

It was also very clear to Tarrak how much she was struggling. “You alright, kid?” He stepped forward, clear concern in his face.

She began to respond, but the lapse in concentration was just enough that the ice spell she was making exploded in her hands. For a moment, it was like a small blizzard had appeared before it dissipated just as quickly; her half-fizzled spell scattered snow and ice across the room in a ten-foot radius, missing Tarrak by a wide margin and pelting her with bits of snow and sharp ice. A few stray winds blew around the room before dying out.

“You alright?” he asked again, dropping his shield. She heard the crunch of boots on snow as he approached. “That wasn’t your best work, was it?”

She spit out a faceful of snow. “It wasn’t.”

He nodded, understanding. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. What happened?”

“I’ve just... been having some trouble with my magic lately.”

“No kidding." He said, looking around the room. "What’s wrong? Can’t concentrate or something like that?”

“Well… my magic _has_ felt a bit off for a little while…”

He raised an eyebrow at that. “That so? How long would you say you’ve been having that feeling?” he asked.

“Uh… since after Khrysalis… I think,” she said, trying to recall when the feeling first started. “Or maybe before then? I think it might have had something to do with Morganthe.” _Or Old Cob._ She didn’t want to even think about that possibility, much less what it might mean for her.

“...Can you describe how exactly it feels different? Anything in particular stick out to you?”

“Well… it feels like it’s fighting back against me. It used to feel completely natural, but now it feels more… alive.” She shuffled a bit, not looking at him. “I know that sounds weird...”

He nodded, not looking surprised in the slightest.

“Do you have an idea what it is?” she asked.

He hummed in thought. “When exactly did you first learn how to use shadow magic?”

The question caught her off guard. “Uh, I’d say around... five months ago. A month before I fought Morganthe.”

“And you say it didn’t start happening until after that, or you just didn’t notice until then?”

“Wait, you think it might be shadow magic that’s been messing up my spells?” she asked incredulously.

“Well, that spell didn’t look like any normal ice spellwork I’ve seen before. Shadow isn’t my area of expertise, but I know enough. I’d say it’s pretty likely.”

“But how?”

“That... I’m not actually sure,” he admitted. “But if I had to guess, I think there might be a bit of interference happening.”

She thought back to the Moon Cliffs, when she first learned shadow magic. Now that she thought about it, she did have the same issue controlling it back then. “But… it wasn’t that bad when I first learned how to use it.”

He shrugged. “Maybe you just weren’t taking no for an answer then.”

“What do you mean?”

“How do I explain this…” he muttered. “Shadow magic... it’s kinda like chaos in magic form, you know? It doesn’t want to be put into a neat little box,” he explained. Fala nodded. That made sense. “If you wanna use it, you gotta have an iron will. No ifs, ands, or buts about it: you put your foot down or it’s not going to do what you want, when you want it to. You follow?”

She nodded again, slower this time. “I think so.”

“Good.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “How about you practice some more until you get the hang of your magic again, eh? We’ll try again whenever you’re ready.” He turned to leave.

“Do you think Velma could help me?” asked Fala.

Tarrak paused. “Can’t say. She comes and goes a lot. I, uh… we don’t really talk much,” he admitted. “She might be able to help if she’s not busy. She could tell you more about your problem than I can, anyway.” Now that he thought about it, he might have to ask Velma to help work with someone like Fala. Now _that_ was an awkward conversation he wasn’t looking forward to. 

“Thanks, Tarrak.”

He shrugged. “Hey, least I could do.” He glanced at the snow around the room. “...I suggest you practice in your room, though. Or somewhere you don’t have to clean up,” he chuckled to himself.

Fala looked around, turning bright red. “... I’ll keep that in mind.”

**Author's Note:**

> MY TALL CHILD IS FINALLY HERE  
> I've never actually posted fic for wiz before. Pirate, yes, but never wiz. I'm more surprised it took me this long than anything else. Anyway, I want to be able to actually archive some of these stories I've written, so I'm gonna try to post them here when they're finished.  
> Also, the Catacombs storyline really is something else. I kinda want to write stuff for Dragonspyre now. Whoo!


End file.
